By William Mackay: In the latest boxing news, top middleweight contender Matthew Macklin (28-2, 19 KO’s) will be facing 39-year-old former junior middleweight champion Winky Wright (51-5-1, 25 KO’s) on April 9th on the undercard of the Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Erik Morales bout at the MGM Grand, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Even though Wright is pretty much a 40-year-old fighter, this is probably the best opponent the 28-year-old Macklin has ever faced during his 10-year pro career.

Wright has lost his last two fights to Bernard Hopkins and Paul Williams. However, Wright is still plenty good enough to give Macklin a severe beating and a real schooling. Macklin has decent slugging skills, but he’s not really technical fighter and he lacks stamina to fight hard. Wright is going to be sticking him with a jab all night long and showing how limited Macklin is as a fighter. Macklin looked horrible in defending his European Boxing Union (EBU) middleweight title against Ruben Varon in his last fight in December.

Macklin barely won the fight by a 12 round decision. Wright is a lot better than Varon, so I see Macklin have huge problems with Wright. The good thing is the fight will probably make the televised portion of the card so that American fans get to see the bout and get a rare glimpse of Wright. This guy is a real expert and it’s disappointing that he hasn’t been all that active in the past four years. Wright stopped fighting on a regular basis in 2007 after a 12 round loss to Hopkins.